McLaren SLR Speedster

We’ve known for quite some time about the ‘Farewell’ model of the SLR, and we’re starting to get asked “Is the McLaren SLR Speedster for sale yet?”. Well, no, it’s not, but it will be soon.

There has been much written about the difficult relationship between McLaren and Mercedes. Mercedes, who own a fair chunk of McLaren, have decided to make their next ’supercar’ in-house (the Mercedes SLC, if rumour is to be believed), and are less than happy with McLaren’s plans for a follow-up to the SLR. But all was harmony when the SLR was born and, despite some slow sales, the car has been a success. But it’s life is nearly over, and McLaren have produced something pretty exceptional as a run-out model.

The McLaren SLR Speedster (as most expect it to named) is a stripped-out, pared-down SLR. You thought Porsche and Ferrari had this off to a fine art with the likes of the Scuderia and the GT2? You ain’t seen nothing yet! The SLR Speedster manages to do without a roof, windows and a proper windscreen as well. Now that is taking weight saving to the ultimate extreme. But that drop in weight lowers the 0-60 time to just over 3 seconds, and the top speed up to 220mph, so it’s definitely worked. Expect the car to hit the streets at the end of 2008.

There are a few ’spy’ shots of the Speedster floating round the web. But the image we have here is a superb rendering of the SLR Speedster, created by Jon Sibal. Many thanks to Jon for letting us post his work here. It’s definitely a notch or two up on my ‘VW with a Porsche Badge‘ I posted a while back!

Only 75 SLR Speedsters are expected to be made, and prices have been quoted anywhere from £450k to £750k, so it’s not going to be cheap. But you’re not going to see many of these thrashing round the Home Counties. Only 15 are destined for the UK, and most of those will probably be stored away by collectors.

Which is a real shame, particularly when this car has been built to be driven – hard.

To enquire about any car in this article, new or used, just click here